With the continued development of wireless communication technologies, an increasing number of mobile devices are able to wirelessly access the Internet. One of the challenges associated with browsing the internet from mobile devices is the small screen size. Simply scaling existing web pages to fit the screen size of a mobile device may result in substantial distortion and/or a web page that is so small that it is difficult to see. Since advertisements displayed on a web page intended for large computer displays only take up a small portion of the total web page, the problems associated with scaling are further exacerbated for the advertisements destined for the small displays of mobile devices.
In desktop and laptop computers, a web browser may be displayed differently depending on the display size. For example, desktop and laptop computer displays may have diagonal measurements anywhere between 12 inches to 21 inches or more. While some distortion may occur between displaying a web page on a 21 inch monitor and scaling the web page to be displayed on a 12 inch monitor, the amount of distortion, if any, is negligible. Further, the distortion may be corrected for on a desktop or laptop computer by adjusting the display resolution.
The small size and the wide variety of screen sizes available on mobile devices presents a challenge for displaying web pages and any associated advertisements. For example, mobile devices such as cellular phones may have display screens anywhere in the range of 1″×1″ to 1.5″×2″, while personal digital assistant (PDA) devices may have display screens around 3″×2″ and other mobile devices, such as Sony's PSP, may have screen sizes of 4″×3″ or more. An advertisement may be designed for display on a mobile device with a larger screen size, such as a 4″×3″ screen, but the advertisement may have substantial distortion if it is displayed on a mobile device with a smaller screen size, such as a 1.5″×2″ screen.